LA BALIA/DEL PERDUTO AMORE

CARLO CRIVELLI

La Balia Rating:
Del Perduto Amore Rating:

Original Review: Obscurity abounds with this CD from Pacific Time Entertainment, which combines two scores by Italian composer Carlo Crivelli - La Balia and Del Perduto Amore. Crivelli, who is virtually unknown outside his native land, received a small amount of international exposure after composing the score for Manuel Pradal's acclaimed drama Angel Sharks earlier this year, but has yet to achieve anything like the level of fame currently enjoyed by his countrymen Ennio Morricone, Pino Donaggio and Nicola Piovani. Judging by this album, Crivelli is a composer from the old school, and he has that distinctly European sound which is hard to describe but immediately apparent.

I have to admit that I know absolutely nothing about either of these films, except what I can glean from the liner notes of the CD. Apparently, La Balia was the official Italian entry at the 1999 Cannes film festival, and was a success at the domestic box office. The film is directed by Marco Belloccio, stars Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Maya Sansa, and looks to be some kind of family drama. Del Perduto Amore was released in 1998, was directed by Michele Placido, stars Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Giovanna Mezzogiorno, and seems to be a love story.

The music for La Balia is very forceful, but somewhat unconventional, and it seems as though Crivelli tried to create an intentionally unsettling score by employing jarringly dissonant rhythms and offbeat orchestrations. The opening track is alarming, combining ragged string and clarinet dissonance with a low, menacing brass theme and tolling bells, and sets a musical precedent for the cues to come. Having not seen the film, I can't begin to imagine what this music underscores, but for some bizarre reason it puts me in mind of a ship in stormy waters. As the track progresses, the music softens and presents the first rendition of the solemnly attractive main theme, initially on forlorn strings. The theme for 'Annetta' is similarly melancholy - the first version is a clarinet solo accompanied by a single violin and the second version features an accordion - while 'Le Pazze' and 'Il Dolore Inespresso' both feature some impressionistic, painfully shrill string work that occasionally sets your teeth on edge. It is only towards the end of the 28-minute score, in 'Tema Di Valeria' and 'Le Lezioni', that music begins to soften slightly, occasionally rising to perform a poignantly beautiful string lament or a warm clarinet theme.

Although La Balia is the focus of attention, there are actually some 14 minutes of extra music from Del Perduto Amore included on the album. This an unexpectedly welcome development because, in my opinion, it is unquestionably the better score of the two. More conventionally beautiful, more symphonically structured and far easier on the ear, Del Perduto Amore sees Crivelli in romantic mode, and features the lush sound of the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra. Once again, strings and woodwinds are dominant throughout, but unlike La Balia, they are used in a much more subtle, unobtrusive manner, allowing the listener to appreciate several lovely themes. Tracks worth noting include the opening 'Del Perduto Amore', which gradually builds up into a splendid rendition of the central melody; the bold and dramatic 'La Bellissima Maestrina'; the undulating 'Distruzione Della Scuola', parts of which remind me of Piovani's Life Is Beautiful with it's amusing string performances; the almost comically upbeat 'La Soluzione Del Problema'; and the lovely 'Tema Del Padre', which brings the album to a close with a superb full-orchestra climax of the main theme. The nine minute concert suite, also entitled 'Del Perduto Amore', acts as an all-encompassing statement of all the major melodic motifs heard during the score.

It seems as though Pacific Time Entertainment are hoping that these two scores will push Carlo Crivelli into the limelight, and are actively undertaking "aggressive Internet marketing to e-zines and soundtrack web sites". Whether this strategy will be successful remains to be seen. Crivelli is certainly a talented composer, and is worth watching out for in the future, but it strikes me that combining these two scores onto one CD was a misjudged move, and is unlikely to generate an interest in his work. Aficionados of European scores are likely to know all about both films already, so the aggressive marketing will be unnecessary for them. But, by spotlighting the peculiar La Balia instead of the much more enjoyable Del Perduto Amore, the label is drawing attention to a film score which is so unconventional that it will not appeal to the soundtrack fan in the street, who is unlikely to waste his money on music from an obscure European film that he's never heard of and is probably not going to like very much anyway.

Track Listing:

LA BALIA DEL PERDUTO AMORE Running Time: 71 minutes 36 seconds

Pacific Time Entertainment PTE8515-2 (1999)

LA BALIA: Music composed and conducted by Carlo Crivelli. Performed by Orchestra Sinfonica Della Marsica. Orchestrations by Carlo Crivelli. Score produced by Carlo Crivelli. DEL PERDUTO AMORE: Music composed and conducted by Carlo Crivelli. Performed by The Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra. Orchestrations by Carlo Crivelli. Score produced by Carlo Crivelli. Album produced by Piero Colasanti.


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